[Mainland Chinese Drama 2018] The Story of Ming Lan 庶女明兰传 / 知否？知否？应是绿肥红瘦

[hello210]

20 minutes ago, zenya22 said:

 

I am wondering, if the future episodes will show Yuan Rou and Ting Ye standing on the opposite sides of the political playing field or if Yuan Ruo will ditch his princess bride and join Ting Ye's side.  

 

Spoiler

The Princess bride doesn’t make it through the rebellion so QH will be a widower. 

 

[m0us3y]

Spoiler

1 hour ago, Golden Flower said:

@hello210 @leeza77

 

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Those envelopes were not deeds to the properties. He was bragging to CB about official families sending him marriage proposal letters. 

CB then said it is national mourning period (former emperor passed). GTY said these marriage seekers do not care about mourning time inviting him to dine with them, some are even saying their families had marriage agreement since he was a child and even showing affections towards his daughter Rong Jie Er. He was so afraid that he had to run away picking up RJE with excuse to go to toilet. Then, he asked CB jokingly (I’m pretty sure he was trying to test the water and probing him for info on ML) how come your Sheng family is not proposing marriage to me with the girls. CB then said you’re thinking so good of yourself, his mom is planning marriage for Rulan with his cousin (his maternal uncle’s son) and ML’s marriage depends on grandma’s decision and that grandma has been planning her marriage with younger son of He family from Bai Shi Tang (district part of city). That’s why I mentioned earlier that GTY got info on ML’s marriage from CB. 

 

 

 

 

Shows how materialistic the world is. 

Not long ago only were they berating him for being a good for nothing unfilial son. A shame for the family. 

Good thing GTY sees through them too. 

That when he was down and out, only nanny, CB and ML believed in him. 

While everyone else was just keeping a distance from him. Including the Qi clan. 

[m0us3y]

2 hours ago, hello210 said:

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Found it. The stepmom and family doing a 180 on their attitude now that GTY is back with honor SMH. And of course his talk with CB. That’s how he found out about ML &  Doc He right?

It also sounded like QH may want to try again?  

@Golden Flower @leeza77

Not QH...

Could be alone here, but I'm not keen to see QH try again. ML seemed "damaged" enough after the first rejection...

 

[Golden Flower]

1 hour ago, zenya22 said:

In earlier episodes the 3rd Sheng brother was heard mouthing off his support of Yong as the heir to the throne. His father Hong Sheng was punished by the emperor as an example to other families. I deduce that the emperor by his actions indicated then that he was not in favor of Yong or Yong's campaign to become the next emperor.

....

Question: So, a shu daughter or a concubine not be allowed to manage the household according to the rules, but are they allowed to share in the inheritance just like the shu sons? Can the concubine be given land and property by the "husband" as Linniang told her Molan? 

I’m sorry I cut some of your post and just left your question so that the post didn’t become too long. 

Actually, it is Yan Wang (not Yong Wang) that Sheng Feng (3rd son) and his friends were supporting and got reported to emperor. You might have remembered it wrong as both names start with Y. I have posted about rebellion situation from the trailer in previous page also. Yong Wang, who has many sons and half a year older than Yan Wang, has only one daughter who is QH's wife now (not sure they're brothers or cousins). Yong Wang was the one that emperor was planning to give the throne to. It was said that Yong Wang left to perform ancestor's rite on behalf of emperor when QH requested to see him. It is the indication that Yong W will be next emperor as performing ancestral rite on behalf of emperor indicates he has been trusted with most important task. That's the another reason QH's family cannot offend Yong W and that's why in my earlier post, I said that GTY's suggestion of abducting Jiacheng princess and keeping her away till after QH gets married to ML is not going to work. If Yong Wang became emperor, he will kill both QH and ML families even if it can't be proved that QH was involved. (Of course, luck was on.GTY's side and Yong Wang didn't become emperor. So, people can say that QH will regret for not taking GTY's advice and help. In that time and situation, it is impossible not to believe Yong W won't become emperor). Then, there is Long Fei who is on Yan Wang's side and that's why in trailer, QH's mom was tormented by Long Fei when Yan Wang was forcing emperor to abdicate the throne to him. The third one is Zhao Zhong Quan (GTY's party) who is just an official in Yu Zhou who is the son of emperor's cousin. We have to wait for epi 35 to see what happened to Yong Wang (from trailer, his daughter died). So, at this point, I'm not sure how the drama is going to turn out. 

Spoiler

In the book, there are 4 princess involved for the throne and there were two rebellions. First involved 3rd and 4th (Yan Wang) and 6th prince Yong Wang wasn’t in the running for the throne. His wife and daughter got raped and died during 1st rebellion but he survived. After 8th prince became new emperor, 6th rebelled later and GTY and QH could have been on opposing party but I don’t think it was mentioned. For drama, we cannot tell since there are only three candidates and might be only one rebellion.

Both di and Shu daughters are going to be sent off to marry after they turned 15. So, they cannot inherit anything except their dowry. Shu daughter usually gets less dowry than di daughters as the main wife usually supplement her own dowry more for her own daughters. The concubine mothers might or might not have their own dowry. In Song Dynasty, women has right to own properties (not in Qing) since they usually manage their own dowry like shops and farms. So, Yes, concubines can own properties though it is not usually given by husband (not common practice) as husband’s family property is supposed to common income for the whole family expenses. You know not all concubines are poor. For higher officials, their concubines might be Shu daughters of junior officials and they would have brought in their own dowry. From the literature and the book, Shu daughters could be sold off as concubines for money or position if family needs their help though not sure how common it is in Song Dynasty.

[Golden Flower]

2 hours ago, m0us3y said:

So she's just ignorant towards everything at the first half of the novel then? 

Lol. The eat well sleep well bit is being maintained in the show it seems. 

ML always struggles to wake up for classes, at first I thought it was just a front she puts up, but then she really didn't wanna wake up even at Youyang. The couz had to drag her out of bed! 

 

And U can tell she loves her food. Lol. Suddenly she wasn't so sick anymore when dr.he brought her fav fish soup! 

Actually, she did a lot of learning for embroidery as she thought it is only way for her to make money as she is Shu daughter, no property from Wei Yi Niang. When she went to Sheng’s main house in You Young, she did a lot of reasoning and talking about Shulan marriage with Pin Lan, her grandmom and first old madam. She just did not gallop around town to talk to prostitude head. There was another marriage interest (second cousin who became PL’s husband) and also met Li’s son who also became her admirer later when he came to capital to take imperial exam.

[mooose]

8 hours ago, sava2sava said:

Can anyone explain to me why dad isn't kicking out the daughter for her unruly behavior.. Her actions can harm 4th and 6th sister if he allows her to stay in the home.. Do he not realize her action can affect them and they're chances of a good marriage..

 

It's more of a scandal if he kicks her out or kills her (kills his own child) since the city already knows. Right now its gossip since nobody outside servants and SH saw them in that compromising state. If SH does anything major against her, he would just be confirming the gossip.

[sava2sava]

5 hours ago, Maria Brimstone said:

I do hope that they actually show MoLan entering her new home and discovering the pregnant concubine though! I wanna see the devastation on her face!!!!

@Maria Brimstone  As the saying goes why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free.. Molan was so busy trying to marry up she didn't even know what she jump in bed and married into..  She did know home work on his background or what the family home was like.. I'm sure that mother in-law didn't make her life all peaches and roses as she thought it would be.. Husband probably off pregnating someone else and not look at her since they official wedding night.. It would have been nice to see her suffer through hardship and nothing her mom can do about it because now she belongs to her husband and his family.. I hope her husband concubine gives her a run fior her money.. Maybe she'll take a page from her mothers books and kill the girl and the baby.. 

 

2 hours ago, hello210 said:

Found it. The stepmom and family doing a 180 on their attitude now that GTY is back with honor SMH. And of course his talk with CB. That’s how he found out about ML &  Doc He right?

It also sounded like QH may want to try again?  

@hello210  It's not strange that she changes her attitude after learning that GTY is the inheritor and he has made a name for himself with the Emperor.. But she has been so two faceded she has even forgotten her own face and hasn't remembered she showed this face to GTY..

Now QH on the other hand is a sad story.. I'm suspecting that his wife can't produce any off spring from him and talking with mom about bringing in another.. It's nothing that the bully concubine can do about it because of his background he has to produce heirs..  

 

I do have a question for thiose of you who has read the book.. Do GTY Ex shows back up with his son.?

 

 

[mooose]

5 hours ago, Jackie1048 said:

 

I cannot believe that despite being the one Sheng Hong loved and adored, Concubine Lin saw Ming Lan's mother as a threat as she too managed to produce children and saw Ming Lan's younger brother as a threat to her son.

 

In the book Concubine Wei was a stunning beauty and managed to get a piece of SH's heart. This is what irked Concubine Wei the most. She wasn't worried about Da Niang or the other concubines.  She was worried about losing her grasp on SH.

[mooose]

4 hours ago, hello210 said:

I’m hoping they keep it to where the will only stipulates that GTY gets the dowry brought by his mother since that would pretty much make the rest of the family poor. And let his sickly brother redeem himself a little by making the decision himself to let GTY inherit, since his brother was really brainwashed by the stepmom since young. 

 

In the end the sickly brother saw the light. Lineage takes second place to talent and achievement. GTY at this stage didn't need the title. They needed him. I think he realised he had been used by stepmom to get the title for her undeserving son.

[mooose]

4 hours ago, Golden Flower said:

I’m surprised the drama made a need to make QH’s mom punished by Long Fei as she was not the one who caused bad things to Long Fei Yen but Yong Wang Fei was. Both she and QH were forced to marry Jiachun princess by Yong Wong Fei. I know QH’s mom made a point to QH that that they also made an enemy out of Long Fei as she mentioned to Yong Wang Fei regards to Long family’s marriage interest to QH. What QH’s mom could have done when she was told of both families’ interest to marry QH instead of letting them know of each other interest?

 

QH's mother sat on the fence for too long regarding his marriage. If you don't make a choice, it will be made for you. She could have married him off to a neutral family. She is just as guilty of overeaching as Concubine Lin. The Qi household was not that wealthy or powerful anymore but she went around putting on airs.

[Golden Flower]

After seeing Zhu Yi Long’s great performance and being promoted so much by drama as second male lead, I felt bad that he took this QH’s role as for (1) not as many scenes being second male lead should have (2) have been written like as a character a lot of people are calling weak, wet-blanket, no backbone, selfish, inconsiderate (though I do not agree and only think he has been sheltered too much and naive) (3) no character growth 

Spoiler

From preview/trailer that shows his meeting with ML after her marriage with GTY, I’m getting really upset that “QH told her he loves her more than GTY as he dreams of her every night and she is in his heart all the time. ML responded by saying we both are married and no need to talk about the past.” Their conversation was seen by GTY. If this scene is going to happen, this is really character assassination of QH. You loved someone dearly but continued declaring your love to her after she got married (I don’t know QH gets married to his second wife or not). Imo, at that point, most audience will hate or even feel disgust with this character. I understand writers want to put in scenes for him as QH became pretty much non-existence in the book after 55 chapters, this is very unfair. That’s why I said above no character growth. In the drama, QH became just love-sick dellutional guy. 

I don’t know why ZYL accepted this QH role. Even in 2014, he was not popular yet but his second lead role in “love three life,” he got pretty much equal screen times throughout the drama though his character is pretty flawed and suffered one-sided love. (May be he worked with ZLY in a movie before and she invited him for this drama?) 

[Golden Flower]

22 minutes ago, mooose said:

 

QH's mother sat on the fence for too long regarding his marriage. If you don't make a choice, it will be made for you. She could have married him off to a neutral family. She is just as guilty of overeaching as Concubine Lin. The Qi household was not that wealthy or powerful anymore but she went around putting on airs.

If she chose another neutral family, she will still offend to both Yong Wang Fei and Long Fei anyways as both Jiachen princess and Long Fei Yei were completely in love with QH, isn’t it? Even both families might harm the girl from this neutral family, no? They both already hate ML due to Polo game, especially LFY. If QH were to marry any other girl, Yong Wang Fei might do the same like she did to LFY and Long family might be capable of doing bad stuff too.

[Maria Brimstone]

To be honest, I can't wait for QH to try for ML's hand again only to get completely SHUT DOWN by evvveryone.

[tomo74]

20 minutes ago, Golden Flower said:

After seeing Zhu Yi Long’s great performance and being promoted so much by drama as second male lead, I felt bad that he took this QH’s role as for (1) not as many scenes being second male lead should (2) have been written like as a character a lot of people are calling weak, wet-blanket, no backbone, selfish, inconsiderate (though I do not agree and only think he has been sheltered too much and naive) (3) no character growth 

  Reveal hidden contents

From preview/trailer that shows his meeting with ML after her marriage with GTY, I’m getting really upset that “QH told her he loves her better than GTY as he dreams of her every night and she is in his heart all the time. ML responded by saying we both are married and no need to talk about the past.” Their conversation was seen by GTY. If this scene is going to happen, this is really character assassination of QH. You loved someone dearly but continued declaring your love to her after she got married (I don’t know QH gets married to his second wife or not). Imo, at that point, most audience will hate or even feel disgust with this character. I understand writers want to put in scenes for him as QH became pretty much non-existence in the book after 55 chapters, this is very unfair. That’s why I said above no character growth. In the drama, QH became just love-sick dellutional guy. 

I don’t know why ZYL accepted this QH role. Even in 2014, he was not popular yet but his second lead role in “love three life,” he got pretty much equal screen times throughout the drama though his character is pretty flawed and suffered one-sided love. (May be he worked with ZLY in a movie before and she invited him for this drama?) 

I believe Zhu Yilong will get more (better) roles after the story of minglan.

[leeza77]

2 minutes ago, Maria Brimstone said:

To be honest, I can't wait for QH to try for ML's hand again only to get completely SHUT DOWN by evvveryone.

Spoiler

If i'm not mistaken, i read somewhere on weibo that qh join the rebellion against the emperor (zhao). He might have to go against gty. And i presumed gty reluctant to hurt qh, thus he was punished by the emperor (the scene gty was in prison) 

 

[leeza77]

8 minutes ago, tomo74 said:

I believe Zhu Yilong will get more (better) roles after the story of minglan.

Zyl was not that popular during the filming of this drama. He gained his popularity through the soul town which was broadcasted after the filming of this drama. My answerwhy he took this role is why not??? The producer is Noon production one of the best production, the cast are zly who is known as the queen of rating, the script is excellent, the director is outstanding, the one who directed famously received drama NIF and love me if you dare and the drama is a guaranteed success. Who doesn't wany to involve on this big oustanding IP. And his character involved a lot of emotion which require a high degree of acting talent. It's a good exposure to him. Being called names by the audience is nothing to the actor. It show the his acting was a success the give a huge impact to the audience. 

[tomo74]

Jealousy makes people's brain shrink, molan smirk when she got told that madam Wu agreed to marry her with her son, not knowing she's going to live in hell smh.

[Golden Flower]

3 minutes ago, Maria Brimstone said:

To be honest, I can't wait for QH to try for ML's hand again only to get completely SHUT DOWN by evvveryone.

What do you mean? Shut down by viewers or shut down by his mom and GTY?

Spoiler

In tomorrow’s episodes for US viewer (epi 36?), after new emperor took the throne, the emperor made announce for another palace exam and he is planning to take it. He was seen asking his mom permission to propose for ML if he passes the exam this time. (His princess wife probably already died). This is the imperial mourning time for country and no marriages or joyful acitivities can be done. So, ML won’t be married off to Dr. He yet. That’s another reason GTY had time to do his scheming, making Dr. He’s cousin family came back from exile. Not sure QH missed the opportunity to propose as he hasn’t taken exam and lost to GTY or his mom doesn’t agree again. In the book, I don’t remember his mom considering ML for even his second marriage. She was considering di daughter Rulan and Molan’s scandal spread and won’t even consider Rulan anymore. 

 

[dito]

8 hours ago, m0us3y said:

 

She manipulated Da Niang to get rid of the spies in her courtyard, and now she got her revenge on Concubine Lin, using their weakness to her advantage to egg Molan and the mom to their own destruction.

All the while getting away scot free, still appearing innocent. 

Arguably, ML could only do that because Molan and the mum was greedy and was in a way willing parties to the whole thing, but she clearly has a hand in getting everything to be where she wants them to be. 

ML is truly a master of disguise. 

Had the world thinking she's quiet, and foolish and outmaneuver everyone, and may I add, without them even noticing they were being played until too late. 

 

 

Reading this I started thinking what if QH saw her like this.....will he still love her??

You know in the dramas..korean or chinese...its always the second lead who falls for the girl first because he sees her real self...while the main lead keeps thinking bad stuff about her. This drama gave that trope a twist. Here the main lead sees her true self and likes her because of that....even though he can guess she must have been doing stuff like this to survive in that house. 

The second lead here wouldn't even dream that the girl he loves is capable of all the scheming and manipulating. 

He was shocked just realizing that she lied to him about riding and playing polo. 

Imagine what he'll feel when he actually sees how she operates.

 

6 hours ago, watchumlots said:

Does anyone know where in the novel (chapter) Ep 31-32 of the drama are taken from? 

 

Don't have subs for Ep 30-32, only up to 29.   AHhhhhh!  I can't wait!  It's killing me to not have the dialogue to these scenes, they are awesome scenes.   

 

I think the whole Molan incident started around chapter 80-81 or a few before that.

[nichiwoohee]

Agree ZYL is gaining a lot by being in this drama. His fans will feel sorry for QH and possibly gaining more fans. Heck, I cant even stalk twitter and IG of minglan’s hashtag without tons of ZYL posts.. I mean.. a girl is only looking for some spoilers, yet all I get is ZYL’s charming pics